Project Homunculus
by XxanonymousauthorxX
Summary: "At the end of the war things didn't look good for humans and there were dozens of projects trying to come up with the magic bullet to win. Project Freelancer was one of them" – Agent Washington.
1. Chapter 1 Who are these assholes?

Project Homunculus

By

Anonymous Author

"At the end of the war things didn't look good for humans and there were dozens of projects trying to come up with the magic bullet to win. Project Freelancer was one of them" – Agent Washington.

Chapter 1: Who are these assholes?

…Jungle Canyon, "Crash Site Bravo"….

Through the scope of a sniper Iron Skin 05 saw three soldiers lined up in front of a mantis class military assault droid. All were wearing Mark V armor, the one on the far left was in a light blue with yellow accents, the middle solider was in what Iron Skin 05 believed was aqua marine and the one with his head down was in maroon. The aqua marine seemed to be talking the blue solider but he could not hear what they were saying. " What exactly are they doing?" Sprit 21 asked with his formal Japanese accent and his extremely formal way of speaking seeped into his second language. Iron Skin 05 would often get a confused or stern look from Sprit 21 for his frequent use of colloquial phrases. In his words ' I speak your native language better then you do'. Iron Skin 05 turned to face Sprit 21. Sprit 21 was wearing snow-white Scanner armor with pine green accents and a gallows visor. " They're just talking mate." Iron Skin 05 responded reveling his very thick Glasgow accent. " What are they talking about?" Sprit 21 inquired. " How the fack should I know? Anno mate how facking boring it is here probably. " Iron Skin 05 snapped back. "Can't you read lips?" Sprit 21 asked to clarify. Iron Skin 05 sarcastically responded, " Oh right because, I can see their lips moving inside their facking helmets". Sprit 21 looked side way and then abruptly looked Iron Skin 05 square in his greystone visor and said "I went to Tokyo University for medical school. Shut Up. " " Yeah you're a doctor. Just because you're a doctor doesn't mean your immune to saying stupid shitte." Iron Skin 05 responded annoyed. " Both of you, lock it up." Hercules 12 said as he emerged from the back of the cliff. The hulking 6'8 Russian towered over Sprit 21 and Iron Skin 05. Hercules 12 was wearing light brown Warrior armor with grey accents and a frost visor. " We could hear what they were saying if you shot the listening device." Hercules 12 reprimanded." Oh right" Iron skin 05 responded embarrassed. Sprit 21 let out an amused huff " You want to say some thing? I will clean your clock egg head." Iron Skin 05 responded aggressively. " No you won't." Hercules 12 sternly ordered. " Yes CO." Iron Skin 05 sighed as he fired the listening deceive on to the ledge of the crappy makeshift base as the blue simulation troopers' CO walked on deck. Iron Skin 05 decided he would just change Sprit 21's wake up ring tone to some nice metal music when Sprit 21 was not looking. Now all Iron Skin 05 to do was decide whether it should be black metal, death metal or Viking metal. Sprit 21 had no taste for metal music; None of Iron Skin 05's teammates did unfortunately. Iron Skin 05 was really wishing he knew how to smoke inside of his helmet, even if it was one of those herbal cigarettes. He really needed a smoke. He needed to make sure to ration the one smoke-able pack he found in that abandon town they passed roughly two weeks ago. This stealth shit really stressed Iron Skin 05 out. First off it was boring as shit, second of all he did not get blow anything up or fight anyone, the favorite parts of his job.

Hercules 12 pulled out the remote to control the change the volume of the listening device and transmit the signal to the team's helmet. "Awaiting mission briefing, " a robotic voice ordered which they all assumed must have been the mantis." Oh right yes umm first order of business is …" their CO seemed to stumble over their words. " Wash psst Wash, Washington, Washington." The CO tried to discreetly signal Washington. " Yes Caboose " Washington responded clearly annoyed but he sounded used to this kind of annoyance. "What is the first order of business? " Caboose asked completely serious. " How the fuck is this guy their CO?" Iron Skin 05 asked legitimately surprised. He was used to COs being stupid. Hell, most of the drill sergeants or COs he had in his entire military and mercenary career were either complete morons or arseholes but, they always at least knew what shittey orders they wanted to give. " I think it is because, the Mantis class military assault droid likes him best." Hercules 12 answered. Iron Skin 05 liked a good fight but even he knew it was stupid to pick a fight with a Mantis. Well maybe if it was out of out of ammo and he had his rocket launcher

"They seem all right for the most part. If they are this lax it show they have not been attacked yet. If we are lucky he did not pick up Washington's distress signal. Finding any clue about where the ship that left here is going to refuel is our first priority. The pilot is in serious danger if those Control people find that ship first. Lets look on the crashed ship, might have the coordinates of this planet's fuel stations and lets look for any supplies we can use as well. Do not take any food supplies, only weapons and ammo. Do not be greedy." Hercules 12 ordered. "Yes Sir" responded Sprit 21 and Iron Skin 05 in unison.

… Crashed Ship, Crash Site Bravo

" So this is the ship that dropped those teleportation grenades we found in the jungle. " Hercules 12 noted as he kept opened a sack and had Sprit 21push an arm full of them into it. " Look sticky detonators" Iron skin 05 exclaimed with glee. " Aww man I love these things. You can set it to explode on contact, a timer or proximity. I broke my first drill sergeant with one of these. So much for an examplar bunkered. Aw good times." Iron Skin 05 let out a satisfied chuckle as he stuffed as much of the ammo as he could in his pocket.

He noticed the 5'4 Sprit 21 was putting as many sticky detonators as possible into a box and glared at the high shelf that he could not reach with contempt. " What's up Doc?" Iron Skin 05 inquired. " I am afraid of Caboose getting a hold of these. He might hurt himself. Could you put these up on that shelf?" Sprit 21 responded with a very concerned tone. " More like hurt others. " Iron Skin 05 said as he carefully pushed the detonators as far back as possible as to humor his teammate. " Next thing you're going to do is ask me to childproof the mines." Iron Skin 05 jested. " Could you?" Sprit 21 asked with uncertainty. " Really mate, you want me to childproof military grade explosive. Not all of those facker can be that stupid." Iron Skin 05 said with disbelief at his teammates request. " Sprit 21 I found computer terminal." Hercules 12 barked across the room 'I need you to push the tiny, fragile, buttons for me with your fragile fingers. We do not want a repeat of last time." Sprit 21 went to the computer terminal and started looking for the coordinates of the closet fuel station. While his teammates were busy with that he started to fill the pouches on his admiral blue solider armor with white accents with some of the vials of nitroglycerine he found on the ground and then started childproofing the mines by adding bright red light to them for shits and giggles. Iron Skin 05 kind of wanted to see what dumb facks could actually be killed by these childproof mines.

" Alright men, fan out and see what you can find. Remember we are hunting the most dangerous prey of them all." the team heard someone say with a very thick American accent. " Man?" another American asked. " What no, giant robot. Man, everything kills man. Mans way down on the list right between koala and retarded koala." Said the first American. The team took this time to hide. Iron Skin 05 was pretty sure he could take on a kola. "Have you ever seen those things in a zoo you stupid Yankee?" Iron Skin 05 angrily said over the radio. "Quite! " Sprit 21 whispered sternly over the radio. Iron Skin 05 continued his thought. " They're like living dolls. All you need to do to defeat one is to David Beckham the little furry fack. Done, Kola defeated. Like to see a kola use a gun or a grenade launcher, especially a retarded koala. Moron."

They were all wearing Mark V armor. There was one purple one, one bright red one and a fat orange one. " You see them? " Hercules 12 asked over the radio. " Aye, I see them. " Iron Skin 05 responded as he peered over the creates he was hiding behind only to see the purple fack with a sticky detonator stuck to his head and the orange dumb fack talking like a toy of some sort of toy. " Oh shit, these dumb facks might actually get killed by childproof mines." Iron Skin 05 thought to himself. " Hmm that purple one's voice sounds familiar. I can't put my finger on why though." Sprit 21 noted. " Alright move out men. We got the coordinates of closest fuel station I am sending you those coordinates right now. Leave as soon as you won't get spotted. Time is of the essence." Hercules 12 said revealing that he was hiding right behind Iron Skin 05. " Jesus Facking Christ" Iron Skin 05 shouted. " Shh Quite, and you know I dislike that curse." Hercules 12 whispered softly. " How the fack did I not notice you there. You're a facking behemoth mate. " Iron Skin 05 said as his heart beat returned to normal speed. " I am really good at hide and seek " Hercules 12 nonchalantly stated. " Now come on. If we waste any more time here we might find the pilot dead."

Hercules 12 switched to the long distance radio. " Golden Eye 070. This is Hercules 12 have you and Poltergeist 16 found crash site alpha?"" Not yet Sir. We are getting close to the site of transmission." Golden Eye 070 responded with his Oxford accent. " Alright we are done with phase 1 moving on to phase 2. Meet us at rendezvous point delta when you guys are done. " Hercules 12 relayed. "Roger that Golden Eye 070 out."


	2. Chapter 2 What are these assholes after?

Chapter 2

Who are these assholes? Part 2

…. Crash Site Alpha…

"Why are we here?" Golden Eye 070 nervously asked. He was crouched looked at the alien tower through his sniper rifle as his teammate stood beside him. " I don't think that this is an appropriate time to ask such a philosophical question. Right now we need to get those experimental weapons away from Control and get their personnel records. They have more then likely have raided all these crashed ships here so my best guess is all those weapons are." Poltergeist 16 started to state her logic before she was interrupted by her teammate " Please don't say it." Poltergeist 16 ignored her teammate's plea " In that alien temple." " And she said it any ways. And I meant why are we here in a space pirate hot spot with only one Golden Eye unit and a tiny " Golden eye 070 stopped as soon as he realized he had said a taboo around Poltergeist 16. She was a small-framed 5'1 woman in white venator armor with sky blue trim and a frost visor.

" I AM NOT TINY. I AM PETITE! " Poltergeist 16 defensively barked " And are we going to go through this again? I have been doing military and private intelligence and reconnaissance for how many years now? I can do this on my own. I have done more dangerous jobs then this alone before and you know it." Flabbergasted Golden Eye 070 tried to remedy the situation, " I never said that you were incapable. Don't put words in my mouth or thoughts in my head. I Just don't want to take unnecessary risks if we don't have to and to be honest it would feel safer if we had some heavy weaponry while we are in the middle of a space pirate hot spot.'" Poltergeist 16 was still very miffed at Golden Eye 070 for bringing up her small stature. It was the first thing everyone seemed noticed about her and all the tall soldiers and mercenaries seemed to think that her petite stature made her incapable of doing her job, never mind doing it well. The fact that she had the voice of a church mouse did not help her either. "Just find an unguarded fuse box." Poltergeist 16 asserted, that fact that she was still miffed was very clear from her voice." Got it. " Golden Eye 070 acknowledged. She ran as quickly as she could toward the alien tower. Golden Eye 070 followed closely and found the best sniper nest he could.

Golden Eye 070 started switching though his eyes' settings. Sprit 21 had just cleaned the lenses so the order was always changed after that. Blink one night vision. Nope, that was not what he wanted nor was it useful right now. Second blink eagle vision, well it was better but seeing as he could only choose one setting he had to choose one that would allow him to see inside the building and the guards movements. Besides he could always use the sniper scope for that, even if that meant getting closer then he wanted to. Third blink, heat vision. Bingo! This setting allowed Golden Eye 070 to see inside the building clearly. Golden Eye 070 could now see a few bodies moving in the building.

" Alright, once you enter the air duct go straight forward until you hit a fork then go 3 meter to your right. The guards just left. I think that gives you roughly 6 minutes." " Copy that." Poltergeist 16 answered as she shot one of her mechanical Aluminum 7075 rope darts. Once the rope dart was thoroughly lodged in the grate Poltergeist 16 grabbed the wire and pulled with all with her weight. Once the grate came off Poltergeist 16 shot the other mechanical rope dart on her other arm into air duct and allowing the motion of the wire rewinding it self to propel herself into the air duct. Once in the air duct she followed Golden Eye 070's directions to the fuse box. Poltergeist 16 lowered her self into the room with her rope darts leaving the grate partly on but still open. She quickly darted to the fuse box while keeping a close eye on her motion trackers to make sure that guards were not coming back early. She opened the fuse box and put her hand near the center of all the wires. With in 30 seconds Poltergeist 16 transmitted to Golden Eye 070. " Alright I have the electrical lay out of the building. Sending you a copy right now. Do you see the guards?"" Yeah, you have 2 minutes to get out of there" Golden Eye 070 relayed to Poltergeist 16.

She quickly shot her rope dart at the air duct pulled her self in and softly closed the air duct behind her. As soon as she to crawl through the air duct to the point of interest, she could hear the door open and some friendly but fruitless banter between the two guards. "Good thing they never guard the air ducts. I wonder why they never do?" Poltergeist 16 transmitted to Golden Eye 070. " Yeah a very good thing. That is because they are not expecting to be infiltrated by Polly Pocket." Golden Eye 070 replied. He muttered the second part under his breath. " You transmitted that. " Poltergeist 16 informed her teammate. An uneasy silence fell over the radio.

There were 2 electrical signatures that Poltergeist 16 was able to clearly indentify as holographic locks. Holographic locks were very expensive and hard to pick so one usually only gets those unless there is some thing really important that they really don't want someone to get into. According to Golden Eye 070 there was one point of interest she would be able to get into via the air ducts the other one the air duct became to small for any human to fit through.

Poltergeist 16 approached the first point of interest. From what she could see from the slits in the grate it was a small plain vault. Her motion sensors sensed 4 guards out side making their rounds. Luckily for Poltergeist 16 they were very efficient with the storage room's space and all the crates were all stacked neatly in the corner in. By using the helmets standard zoom function she could read the writing on the crates: LIGHT SHEILDS, TELOPORTERS, ACTIVE CAMO UNITS, and BINARY RIFLES. " Yeah, these definitely sound like things we don't want these guys having." Poltergeist 16 thought to herself as she tied one of her micro-transmitters to a throwing knife with Magician's string. She also used this time to tie the drop dart on her right arm into a small loop. Poltergeist 16 lightly tossed her only teleportation grenade at the crates instantly absorbing them. She then used the looped rope dart to slowly and carefully to pick up the teleportation grenade with out tripping any motion sensors. With the rope dart on her left arm she tied another micro-transmitter to the dart with magician's string and slowly swang it back and forth until I gained enough momentum to get onto the keypad of the holographic lock and she manually pulled it slowly back into the air duct. Then Poltergeist 16 threw the knife in the now empty space that the crated previously had occupied. Poltergeist 16 used the holographic projection armor enhancement to create a holographic copy of the crates and transmitted the holographic projection to the micro-transmitter. Keeping up a constant hologram of that size would drain a lot of power so that meant that Poltergeist 16 need to get to the second point of interest as quickly as possible.

The distance of crawl able air duct had all but ran out. Poltergeist 16 checked her motion sensor to see if anyone was below her, not a single ping. Poltergeist 16 hesitantly activated her active camouflage unit before leaving the safety of the air duct and carefully crept to the holographic lock and started to try and pick it. With in fifteen seconds she got a transmission from Golden Eye 070. " Are you done with that lock yet?" " Who am I Agent Foxtrot-12? This is a holographic lock I need at least a minute. Why is someone coming into my motion trackers radar?" " No just the hologram" Golden Eye 070 stated his tone reviled he was a little scared, " just doing that takes up a lot of power and we both know what happens when." Poltergeist 16 interrupted her worried teammate with the kindest tone she could muster as she reminded herself her worry did not come doubt out of care. " Relax, gosh you are such a worry wart. I charged like always do before the mission. I am at 91%. I am fine. I will let you know if I need or want more help. Now just like you would not talk to Spirit 21 while he doing an operation, don't talk to me while I am picking a lock. I need full concentration on a lock of this caliber." With in a minute and a half the door was open and all sign indicated she had not set off any alarms.

In the room was a large computer. Now all she had to do was find the personnel files, copy them over and get out of there. It was relatively easy get in and once in it was a simple search for the personnel files. She turned off her active camouflage unit while it was doing this to save power. The personnel files were half way done copying over when a ping on her motion trackers appeared. Poltergeist 16 could not stop the copying process and if she activated her active camouflage, the screen would be very suspicious. Poltergeist 16 quickly rolled up an office chair and started rapidly going through the armor's standard voice modes and activated her holographic projections.

The guard strutted in to room gun pointed to expect a hostile from the looks of the lock only to see Felix with his legs up on the keyboard and leaning back in a chair. Felix looked like he was sleeping. The guard cautiously crept closer to the sleeping Felix. Before he could poke him, Felix turned to him and barked at him in a very annoyed tone " What do you want?" The guard stumbled back " Sorry Sir, I thought you were back with the New Republic. You know Locus doesn't like it when you guys are both away at the same time." Felix interrupted him clearly more annoyed then before " Well I need a break form those idiots ok! Do you know what it is like to have to deal with those morons day in and day out? So tell Locus he can bite me oh and when you see him give this for me will yea. Now let me sleep." Felix flipped off the guard before rolling over. " Umm yes sir. Right away sir." The guard stuttered while running out of the room. Poltergeist 16 let out a huge sigh of relief as she allowed the Felix hologram to dissipate. ". I am fine but that was too close for comfort" She transmitted to Golden Eye 070 who told her she still had the voice filter on.

The file was done copying over when she got a frantic transmission from Golden Eye 070 " Yeah get out of there as soon as you can I think Locus is coming your way. That is a pretty angry strut. You have no hope of beating him in battle with your marshmallow punches and you can't even shoot a gun without accidently hitting yourself in the face. " "Poltergeist 16 barked back " Could you put that in a memo and entitle it ' shit I already know'?" Poltergeist 16 noticed the ping on her motion sensor .It was too late to leave the room with out setting off an alarm and there was no decent cover in the room. She activated her active camouflage unit, hid under the desk and contorted her self as flat as possible by folding her legs behind her and throwing her feet over her shoulders and used her arms to keep her self up against the wall by using the desk above her. She activated the micro transmitter she had previously set on the first holographic lock and she started to try and reset the lock to its factory settings.

The door open and a very angry Locus stomped into the room. " Felix, where are you? You know your breaking protocol by being here. " Locus growled. Locus did a quick scan of the room. " I don't have time for your games Felix." Stated as he started to feel around the room. Poltergeist 16 just got the lock to its factory setting and started to reconfigure the lock. She was not sure for how much longer she could hold this contortion. As soon as that thought passed her mind she could see Locus's hand moving underneath the desk. Her breathing nearly stopped. The locks reconfiguration would have to be good enough as it was. She let the crates' hologram dissipate. Locus's hand was getting closer. "Locus the crates are gone sir." Locus heard Miller say franticly over the radio. " What do you mean by that?" Locus said as he put his hand on his helmet and started walking towards the door. "They just disappeared sir and I can't get out of here. The stupid lock isn't working." " All guards to quadrant C now. " Locus ordered as he started running. Poltergeist 16 bolted for the air duct as soon as she was out of Locus's motion tracker's radar. " GE 70 closest exit out of the building now please. I don't care at what story it is. Get the mongoose ready. " Poltergeist 16 frantically whispered as she reentered the air duct. Golden Eye 070 changed to his eagle eye setting and found an exit close to his teammate. " Right, 2 meters straight and then 3 meters to the left the air duct leaves the building at the seventh story." He said as he started running for the mongoose. Poltergeist 16 found the exit her teammate told her about and kicked the grate off. She looked at the surrounding and saw an exposed beam of a decimated space ship. " Perfect" she thought as she pushed her self out of the duct and allowed herself to go into free fall. Once the beam was with in ten feet Poltergeist 16 shoot her mechanical rope darts at the beam and swung her self like a pendulum and did a mid air flip and tucked a rolled as she hit the ground.

She could see Golden eye 070 in his Fern green Commando armor with mud brown accents coming closer on the mongoose. He stopped in front of her and ordered her to grab his waist. " Not bad for a Tephra circus brat, huh Earth Boy. " Poltergeist 16 commented. " You really need to stop putting thoughts into peoples head," Golden Eye 070 countered. " Golden Eye 070 " Objective completed we will meet you guys at meeting site delta." Golden Eye 070 transmitted over the long distance radio. " Hear you loud and clear Agent Tight Arse. Meet you there." Iron skin 05 replied.


	3. Chapter 3 Making a lasting impression

Chapter 3: Making a Lasting Impression

"Crates full of light shields, teloporters, active camo units, binary rifles and an enhanced motion tracker. Care to explain how those just disappeared from the most heavily defended building on the planet Locus. Is it our Freelancer friend or was it a ghost?" Control demanded his tone was clearly furious even with the voice filter on. "Oh someone is in trouble. Hey Carolina do you have any popcorn? I really want to savor this moment." Church exclaimed. " Wait a minute" Carolina chimed in " Church we didn't do that. If we didn't do that then who did? ." " Hold on a minute, you're right. Those assholes are stealing our thunder. We should kick their ass." Church added.

" I don't know " Locus answered, " All we know is that they entered via the air ducts, and that they use knives. The only clue to their identity is the knife they left behind and this." Locus held up part of a shattered dog tag. Looked like it was the bottom of the dog tag and a small silver of metal protruded from it. It had the Project Freelancer's symbol on it and a lower case 'a' on the small silver of metal. " Is that yours? Maybe they were trying to frame us." Church hypotheses. " Well if they were, they did a really shoddy job." Carolina noted.

" So it is our dear Carolina then!" Control noted. "No." Locus corrected. " Carolina and this new problem have two very different modes of operation also Carolina has never shown any interest in our personnel files before. This new problem is looking for someone. I will ask Jorogumo if she has any idea. It might also be good to see if Madame Guillotine has any ideas, although I highly doubt it." " Jorogumo?" Church said surprised " Isn't Jorogumo one of their biggest buyer of all this shit. Wouldn't Control have better contact with them then Locus and who the fuck is this Madame Guillotine? Hey Carolina you sure that those mushrooms you ate were button mushrooms because this shit is not making any sense." "I don't know but I want to quickly check on the others since our Locus clearly blocked our transmission. "

…. Jungle Canyon, Crash Site Bravo.

" We were only gone for what 5 hours? How did all this happen in five hours?" Sprit 21 asked as he changed the test tube to get another vial of blood. " A lot can happen in a 6 seconds on the battle field; 5 hours is an eternity there." Hercules 12 affirmed as Sprit 21 pulled the needle out of his arm. " Is that enough?" Hercules 12 asked feeling dizzy. " Yeah this should be enough. This guy is lucky your blood type is O. You act more like Type AB though." Sprit 21 noted as started to do the blood transfusion on the left for dead New Republic solider. " Is that so?" Hercules 12 snickered. Hercules 12 tried to stand but instantly lost his balance. He started to fall and Sprit 21 created a few hexagons of a domed energy shield for Hercules 12 to put his hand on for balance and moved it so Hercules 12 could slowly lower himself. Sprit 21 riffled through his medical bag and handed Hercules 12 a small bag of peanuts and a cranberry juice box " Here this should help you produce more red blood cells quickly." " I think I am 50 years to old for a juice box." Hercules 12 stated as he looked at the juice box that was comically small compared to his enormous hands. " Well then stop complain like a child and drink it. Blood is important especially for you." Sprit 21 ordered.

Meanwhile at the red base, Iron Skin 05, Poltergeist 16, and Golden Eye 070 were seeing what they were able to find at the red base. Iron skin 05 had finished attaching the light shield armor enhancement to his armor and went to go investigate up stairs. Golden Eye 070 had finished attaching the active camo unit to his own armor and was finishing adding one of the new less power intensive ones and the enhanced motion tracker to Poltergeist 16's armor. Iron Skin 05 was still chuckling at the fact that the sim troopers had not only had they used his childproof mines but they were able to take out a mantis class military assault drone with them. Poltergeist 16 deiced to take a break from trying to decipher the alien cuneiform they found at the multiple alien temples they encountered on this planet and try to crack the code to the small box that she found by tripping over it. As far as she could tell it had been buried and the mines explosion re-surfaced it. It could hold some vital intelligence. From Sprit 21's last helmet logs, she knew she heard the voice that she heard when she intercepted Omega's last transmissions many years ago. They just stopped for some reason. Could Omega be on this planet and were these sim troopers working for him? This tiny metal box could hold the answers to those questions and more. From what she could tell it would open once someone said the secret word. I would have to be something easy to remember something that if re-found years latter Omega would remember.

She had just finished all synonyms for evil in the English language when Iron skin 05's helmet popped down from up stairs. " Hey Noble, remember you said you would stop giving me shite for my bunk if found someone more untidy then I? Well check this shite out." Iron skin 05 beamed. " No I still would because we had and still do have bunk inspection and I thought we agreed to stick to code names instead of our real names in case Control picks up on these transmission because they shouldn't have access to Project Homunculus's records and also I highly doubt it." Golden Eye 070 answered his frustration very apparent in his tone. " Oh lighted up agent tight arse" Iron Skin 05 said you could almost hear his eyes rolling " one of our enemies already who the lot of us are and if they are working together then as soon as they detect us she going to spill it. Also I know your number bothers you, Mr. almost Bond." Golden Eye 070 whimpered" It is double O seven just the numbers are in the wrong order is all." As soon as Golden Eye 070 got the second story he let out a loud " Ew. This place not untidy, it is inhospitable and this that ugh. Someone actually lived in this squalor." Iron Skin 05 let out a good hearty chuckle " I win and at this point I am not grossed out; I am just facking impressed." Iron skin 05 pointed to the ceiling. "I don't know how those boxers got filled with syrup or why they are on they ceiling but that is a thing of utter beauty." Iron skin 05 casually stepped out of the way of the falling syrup boxers. Golden Eye 070 leapt out of the way as if a grenade had fallen. Golden Eye 070 was trying with all his might not to vomit inside of his helmet. Looking for any excuse to not have to help Iron Skin 05 rift through all the snack cake wrappers and crusty socks, He bellowed down stairs to Poltergeist 16."Do you need help cracking that box?"

"No, What kind of Intelligence officer would I be if I couldn't figure out a secret word?" Poltergeist 16 answered. With the words "secret word" the box's lock clicked opened. " What seriously, I am glad it didn't take long but seriously, I thought it might be something less obvious." she stuttered stunned. " What is in it?" Golden Eye 070 said as he tried to go down stair before he could Iron Skin 05 signal to him in military sign language " no eliminate this target " and then pointed to the trash. He sighed. " A Hello Kitty journal covered what the author refers to as 'blue poison'. This substance does not appear to exist in any of Sprit 21's databases. But why cover something inedible with poison? Poison is not dangerous unless you ingest it or inhale it so by wearing armor one is safe. I don't think this sergeant is very intelligent. Also while you are up there try and see if you can find a Private Donut's knapsack, It might have something suspicious in it. I could have some Intel in it the sergeant does not want to state right out. " Poltergeist 16 replied confused.

Luckily for Golden Eye 070 a lacey knap sack with 'Private Donut ' written in calligraphy in purple glitter was close to the entrance and the 'I" dotted with a little heart. It didn't sit well with him, going through a lady's knapsack but if there were vital Intel in there it would be something that had to be done. Golden Eye 070 prepared himself for the infraction of manners he was about to commit by taking a deep breath. Perhaps he would write her an apology letter later.

Before he could Poltergeist 16 shouted up " Hey Iron Skin, as our weapons/ordnance and our unofficial mechanic would you happen to anything about robotics?" " Not much but I will answer what I can? " Iron Skin 05 responded as he sniffed a package of Twinkies and tossed it across them the room when he noticed there was mold on them. " Why would a lubricant need to be scented in a robot; No one is going to be smelling it?" Poltergeist 16 asked. " It doesn't need to be." Iron Skin 05 cringed. Hesitantly Golden Eye 070 inquired, " What happens when you accidently use sexy lube instead of car lube?" Iron skin 05 shook his head no and whispered " Anno, all though in the heat of a moment, I found out what happens when you do the reverse." Golden Eye 070 cringed at that mental image. " Yeah that why I no longer bring women in to the garage" Iron Skin 05 added. Golden Eye 070 snickered. "Oh shut up. You and Wendy broke up over a pun." Iron Skin 05 reminded Golden Eye 070. " What was suppose to do, not make the pun? " he responded. " Your always suppose to not make the pun especially when she says 'not another pun'." Iron Skin 05 said.

Poltergeist 16 continued to inquire about parts of the journal " also what is a dongle switch and how can it be used for self maintenance." Golden Eye 070's pasty English skin turned bright red. Iron Skin 05 grabbed his gut as fell to the floor laughing. " Through his laughter he was able to say, " Self maintenance, I am going to start calling it that now." Poltergeist 16 let out an angry puff " sorry if it is common knowledge for someone of your specialty but I need to know." She started to sob, " You didn't need to laugh." "No no don't cry " Golden Eye 070 cooed, " It is used for the release of excess fluids." Iron skin 05 snickered at Golden Eye 070's answer and apologized to Poltergeist 16.

After that awkward conversation Golden Eye 070 was actually looking forward to looking for the Intel in the lady's knapsack. He only needed to take a small peak into the knapsack. He opened the knapsack and instantly regretted and whished with all his might that mind bleach was a real thing. Golden Eye 070's pasty skin became the hue of a boiled lobster. Iron Skin 05 peered over Golden Eye 070's shoulder and commented " What was this lady in her civilian life a professional submissive?" "That's it. I need a walk to clear my head. " Golden Eye 070 said hands in the air as he went down stairs. As he got downstairs he saw that Poltergeist 16 had ripped out a page from the journal at tore it shreds. She was shaking in rage " Those aren't laws. They are lies you loathsome dreg." She shouted out at the top her lungs before she started crying. Golden Eye 070 hugged his upset teammate and cooed, " It is alright you had a rough day. You lost a precious keepsake and they are only words on a page. Lets see what Intel we can find at blue base maybe we will find your keepsake on the way there. "

" A gash from words hurts more then a gash from a sword. And your right we have a job and maybe it just fell out my pocket on the way here " Poltergeist 16 sobbed. Iron Skin 05 wanted to comfort her as well but it looked like Golden Eye 070 had it covered so he might as get all the explosives he saw on the crashed ship last time he was here and the crates they left on there as well. He had one teleporter cube with the coordinates to their ships cargo hall left.

… Crash site beta

Carolina and Epsilon were looking on the crashed ship hoping that the gang was hiding on it and that the enemy did not capture them. Although she doubted there was still a hostile force here she felt that she couldn't be too careful; for all she knew Locus was waiting for her.

Epsilon kept telling her she was being paranoid.

Carolina heard the dragging of crates a few rooms over. Carolina took out one of her Magnum Pistols and followed the noise ready to ambush. Carolina saw a tall man in admiral blue solider armor with white accents; He was carrying a binary riffle on his back and a sticky detonator on his thigh. The man was pushing creates and organizing them into small groups. There were three groups two of the groups were stacked and he seemed very careful with the third group. " Mercury fulminate that is a primary explosive" The man said to him self in a very thick Scottish accent " and nitroglycerin fack, you can be a low or secondary high. Well it is not under confinement so might want to put with the secondary highs." As he moved the last two crates into position He took out a teleporter cube, walked out of the room and looked at the crates.

Carolina deiced now was the best time to attack; there was no way she was letting this man do what ever he was planning to do with all those explosives. Carolina pressed her pistol to the back of the man's head " Give me the Teleporter cube now!" Carolina demanded. " No. This is my last one, get your own damn Telportoter cube." Iron Skin 05 blurted. " What do you mean 'No'?" Carolina perplexed. " I mean No. Not a lot of room for interpretation there." Iron Skin 05 replied. " Dude you have a gun to the back of your head; you don't get to say 'no'." Church reminded Iron Skin 05. " That is what you think!" Iron Skin 05 interjected as he turned his body 360 degrees using that momentum to knock Carolina's first pistol with his hand. Carolina was prepared for Iron Skin 05's disobedience and pulled out her second pistol. Now that she was certain he was a hostile force, whom would not comply with her, she had no quarrels using lethal force to protect herself and shot him right in the heart. There was no way she could miss at such close range. Iron Skin 05 stumbled back from the sheer force of the shot. It knocked the wind right out of him. Iron Skin 05 gasped, " Ok shoot me first no 'long time no see. How have you been'? Man, you really don't take 'no' for an answer".

Carolina was baffled; that shoot should have killed him. "Epsilon, Bio-scan now! " she ordered. " Yeah he has some weird silk like thing underneath his skin that is stopping the bullet from piercing his heart. The bullet has barely penetrated that weird silk. What fuck is up with this asshole?" Epsilon reported. Iron Skin 05 explained " That weird silk is designed to be similar to the silk made by the female Darwin Bark Spider; It is roughly three to ten times stronger then Kevlar. I can't remember. And Epsilon, You think the Freelancers were the only super soldiers on the block? You know it still hurts when you shoot me Carolina." He took a Muay Thai stance and started bouncing back and forth his excitement apparent with each bounce. Carolina could almost hear him grinning ear to ear as he said" Although I am glad your just as pumped for our rematch as I am Carolina. I have been waiting years for this."" You know this lunatic, Sis?" Epsilon asked Carolina. " I have no idea who he is or what he is talking about." Carolina answered. Iron Skin 05 stopped bouncing and complained, " Really, all I need to do is change my armor and you have no idea who I am. I see how it is. I thought the fight we had was special. Well I guess this time I need to make a lasting impression." Iron Skin 05 regained his fighting stance. "Yeah when did you loose your mind?" Epsilon snarked but was also a little curious. " Well, about ten years ago my mind said it was going to go and get a pack of fags and never came back .The lying fack." Iron Skin 05 snarked back.

With out warning Iron Skin 05 made a quick jab at Carolina's face which she easily blocked with her fore arm and then Carolina swiftly jumped back. She did a quick snap kick aimed at Iron Skin 05's head, which he narrowly dodged. Iron skin heard a swoosh as Carolina's leg cut the air as it narrowly passed his head. Iron Skin 05 attempted to counter with a right hook twisting his entire body weight into it. Carolina dodged it by the skin of her teeth and she tornado kicked him in the face that felt like as if it had hit him at mach speed, causing him to be disorientated. Iron Skin 05 recovered just in time to block a sidekick from Carolina with his a cross block. Iron Skin 05 could feel his left arm digging into to his right one and only had a quarter of a second to redistribute his weight to block another tornado kick from Carolina with his left forearm. Iron Skin 05 grabbed the back Carolina's head with both arms and started kneeing her in the ribs with alternating knees. She could feel the force reverberate throughout her torso. This didn't last long however as Carolina broke his grip by punching him in the middle of his chest sending him back and knocking the air out of him. Carolina tried to side kick him while he was imbalanced but he dodged it like a lucky drunkard. Iron skin 05 and Carolina then exchanged rapid jabs. Some of the punches were blocked by the opponent's punches. It seemed with each jab Iron Skin 05 had more energy to put into it. Iron Skin 05 tried to knee Carolina in the ribs again but She caught his leg with a cross block. Carolina pulled her opponent's trapped leg closer to her as she scissor kicked his other leg. Iron Skin 05 fell to the floor. Carolina stepped on Iron Skin 05's collarbone so he couldn't move. Carolina started to move her foot towards Iron Skin 05's neck. " Alright you are going to answer all my questions or I will crush your larynx. 1. Who are you? 2. How do you know me? 3. Why are you here? And are the others?" Carolina threatened. "1. You can call me Iron Skin. I am the only unit of my kind on this planet. 2. Your fault for forgetting who I am. 3 why are any of us here really? Cosmic coincide I think. And 4. I am not about to rat out my teammates." Iron Skin answered. "That is not answering my questions at all you little shit " Carolina clarified as she started to move her foot closer to Iron Skin's neck.

Iron Skin knew Carolina did not joke around. If Noble was a tight arse then she was airtight arse. Iron Skin grabbed the sticky detonator off his thigh and shoot it pass Carolina. " You missed." Carolina noted. " Who said I was aiming for you hen. It would be shame to let all those explosives go to waste." Iron Skin clarified.

Carolina could hear the detonator's beeps getting faster. Carolina activated her speed unit and high tailed it out of the canyon. She didn't know how large the explosion was going to be but she didn't want to be caught in it. The suicide bombing completely took her off guard.

Meanwhile in blue base, Hercules 12 was laying on the floor in the blue barracks trying to get some rest. Spirit 21 had taken this time to sterilize his surgical equipment. Golden Eye 070 was cleaning his sniper rifle and Poltergeist 16 looking for useful Intel under the sim troopers' bunks. She had found a stack of kitten calendars and ten boxes of crayons under the first bunk. Poltergeist 16 moved on to the next bunk, she found a very modest tin lock box that had a small piece of paper taped on it that said 'Agent Washington's- Don't touch, especially you Caboose.' The lock was child's play for a trained specialist like poltergeist 16 with a lock picking kit. In the box were a few photographs and some dog tags. The dog tags were all tangled. The dog tags clanked together as Poltergeist 16 tried to untangle them. "Put it back where you found it now" She heard Hercules 12 drowsily mumble. Poltergeist 16 continued. She had finally gotten one untangled and it fell to the floor. " I said put it back where you found it right now." Hercules 12 barked. " But this could easily be a Intel goldmine." Poltergeist 16 started to protest until Hercules 12 slammed his fist on the ground causing the entire floor to shake. Hercules 12 barked his order to put it back again and Poltergeist 16 reluctantly complied with the illogical order from her CO. Poltergeist 16 was extremely confused; it was her job to get Intel. Why was her CO upset with her for doing her job? Hercules 12 pointed at the door signaling Poltergeist 16 to leave the room. Poltergeist 16 left very upset and baffled. " What did I do wrong?" she kept asking her self.

" Those dog tags, do they belong to," Golden Eye 070 started to ask. Hercules 12 nodded his head " yes most likely all fallen Freelancers." " It makes sense. Washington would be a perfect recovery agent after his incident with Epsilon." Spirit 21 added, " Perhaps we should look. It would benefit us to know who is dead and who is still alive in Project Free Lancer." Hercules 12 shook his head no " Let us respect Wash's privacy. I would like to remain blissfully ignorant. I would like a moment alone to pray please." Not even a second had passed since the sentence had escaped Hercules 12's lips that the ground shook accompanied by a loud boom. Hercules 12's eye twitched as he asked, even though in his heart he already knew the answer, " What was that?"

" Do you even need to ask? It is our neighborhood friendly pyromaniac and resident crazy bastard. " Golden Eye 070 responded. The team ran as fast as they could toward the explosion's after math. They could see Iron Skin crawling out from the ruble exclaiming " That was awesome. I could see the whole thing through the light shield." Poltergeist 16 burst in to tears. She ran to her teammate hugged him while sobbing something incoherent. Iron Skin patted her head trying to calm her. As if nothing had happened Iron Skin waved to Sprit 21 " Hey Doc I need a patch up. The scrap I got into with Carolina got me shoot." He turned to Golden Eye 070 "Oh by the way Carolina is alive still as uptight as ever and has the Epsilon AI." Iron Skin nonchalantly commented as he started taking off his chest plate. " And you blew her to kingdom come!" Golden Eye 070 shouted. One could hear Spirit 21 mumbling under his breath in Japanese that some one was going to get the disinfectant the burned like the sun for being an incautious jackass. Spirit 21 was debating with himself in Japanese if he should also remove the bullet with a corkscrew as extra punishment or if that was too cruel. Technically that was what was their original purpose when they were invented in WWII. " Keep the head, she had her old armor so she probably had her speed unit that she could run with out an AI." Iron Skin reassured. " Probably, Probably you walking PR nightmare." Golden Eye shouted.


	4. Chapter 4 a tale of 2 armies

Chapter 4: A tale of two armies

F.A.C Outpost 37…

" I hope the others aren't in to deep without us " Wash worried. Wash and the Reds could hear footsteps behind them. They turned around to see General Doyle and a new slender female solider with black accents on her armor. She walked up to Agent Washington and cupped her hands toward her body and did a quick shallow bow " My sincerest apologies for Locus's rough welcoming of you and your men. Locus was clearly not hired for his prowess in diplomacy. I would have retrieve you myself but we were worried Felix would have been there and Locus is the only solider we have that can deal with him." She avowed. "Well that is the under statement of the year. " Dounut asserted." Agent Washington, Sarge, Dounut, Lopez, This is Yun-Seo Kang, my bodyguard and personal secretary, she will be watching over you until you get fully settled." Doyle commented.

" Don't worry you pretty little head over it, little lady. I think we would have worried us more if we saw you unaccompanied in the canyon any way, and what does she protect you from germs? " Sarge attempted to assure Miss Kang " God damit Sarge." Washington thought. Miss Kang replied in a monotone voice " I am 5 7', I would have had an elite squad with me and I protect him from bodily harm." She turned to Doyle and in a concerned tone said " General Doyle, not to question your judgment but all things considered but I would feel much better if I was by your side doing my usual duties. We don't know when those trigger happy savages will attempt to kill you again." " Now I was the one who taught you how to be the ace secretary you are today and the men who are protecting me where hand picked by you if god forbid you were to fall in battle; I will be fine. I need you to make sure these men and their robot are safe and sound as well know how the army runs inside and out. I can not think of anyone more quailed for that then you." Doyle reassured Miss Kang before he took his leave." Please don't leave me alone with them." Miss Kang pleaded with Doyle but her plea fell on deaf ears." " We can take care of ourselves. We don't need a baby sitter!" Sarge bellowed to Doyle as he left. "I don't but, you two do." Wash thought to himself.

It was only until Doyle left the scrap yard, did she turn around to address Wash, Sarge and Dounut. " Well let's take you men to your quarters. You men must be exhausted." Miss Kang suggested as she turned down the hall. Wash was not sure if it was her long legs or what but he quickly found that the casual pace he had gotten accustomed to was not going to keep up with her extremely brisk pace. He and the Reds were practically jogging to keep up with her. Each turn she did was a perfect left or right face. Wash noticed Sarge and he were doing the same. Wash always remembered being good at drill, armed or unarmed. Armed being his favorite. Wash actually found it relaxing to a point. He remembered nights when he couldn't sleep on MOI he would use an old cemented air rifle and go through a drill until he felt calm enough to go to sleep. Wash found himself doing a change step to match her steps and he noticed the fact that Dounut was off step was annoying him more the longer it went on. While Dounut was complaining about their less then chipper tour guide was not even attempting to make the tour engaging. Miss Kang kept reminding Dounut she was not their tour guide; She was their bodyguard.

Miss Kang handed each of them a packet of neatly stapled papers from her clipboard while still keeping incredibility brisk pace. Miss Kang started to inform the group, but it seemed like she was mostly addressing Wash. " You will be traveling with General Doyle thus you will be expected to know Doyle's traveling schedule. Your luggage should be keep to a single duffle. All other luggage regulations are on pages 2-4 in your packet. Also no personal rations especially perishables. The army will provide all your meals at very specific times. Your meal schedule is on page 5 of the packet. If you have any food allergies write them down on page six and give it to me by 20:00 hrs today so I can inform those on chow duty. It is not a request page. You will need to inform me what Lopez needs for his regular maintenance. You will also be expected keep a certain level of fitness while staying with us. Agent Washington, your packet has a list of all training equipment that will be available to you and your men in the next month. I will expect you and your men's training regiment by 20:00 hrs today or I will assume you want to use the one Sergeant Chapman created for the other soldiers in this out post which is on page 10 of your packets. I will also have you men running a basic fitness test before Dr. Grey checks Agent Washington's head to make sure his brain surgery had no complications. When did Dr. grey say that was?"

" She said it was at 08:00 hrs. You are kind of putting us on a tight schedule here. I should be fine but these guys can't go from causal nose picking to a military training schedule." Wash tried to inform Miss Kang. Without missing a beat Miss Kang asked, " They are soldiers correct?" Hesitantly Wash was going to answer " in a sense." But before he could Sarge answered for him " Only the best you've ever seen Missy. " Dounut chimed in " We are not just the best soldiers you will ever see we are the heroes who are going to save your planet." " Don't call me Missy. It is demeaning, then you all should be used to order and structure. All right we are here, the officer barracks" Miss Kang affirmed. You could almost hear her rolling her eyes as she stopped suddenly in front of a cold iron hallway of doors with slightly nicer doors then the others he had seen.

" Speaking of general hygiene, your men's " Miss Kang paused " ' musk' is quite potent. You will find a personal shower in your rooms that you can set the temperature to the exact degree you need. I had the setting changed to empirical system instead of metric for your convenience. " After blank stares from the group Miss Kang sighed" I had it changed to American for your convenience." " Oh well say that next time." Donut said. After a quick pit check Agent Washington did realize he had worked up quite a musk. " Now, Missy a man's musk is a badge of honor. Since the beginning of time, men have used their musk as warning to weaker men of their presence so that they may cower in fear accordingly. " Sarge argued. With a completely straight face Miss Kang replied " Thank you for the history lesson in nostril warfare but at its current strength and radius it could easily give away your position. For the sake of stealth please get rid off it." " Stealth is a cowards weapon." Sarge claimed. " No it is the intelligent soldiers' weapon. " Miss Kang disagreed. Donut broke in " A manly musk is all good and well but scents can be fun Sarge. My favorite is lilac. It is soothing and classic but I think wood scents would fit you better. Like pine." "No" Sarge interrupted " Pine is a soft wood. I am a hardened military Nothing about me is soft." Donut said, " Hmm Miss Kang could give Sarge some hard wood " Miss Kang interrupted Donut "No". Clearly offended Donut said" Well maybe we can ask the other soldiers if they could give Sarge some hard wood." Miss Kang interrupted Donut again " that kind of entrepreneurship is discouraged in the barracks. Just please take your showers. I will be in your rooms in exactly 5 minutes to collect your armor for cleaning and polishing." "Soap hogs " Dounut huffed.

Sarge took the door to the far right and Dounut to the door to the left while Wash took the door in the middle. Lopez was escorted to a room that Miss Kang felt would fit Lopez's needs better. The room was mostly light cool colors. The room was very simple, a small personal bathroom, a nightstand, a minimal desk, an armor locker and a single bed with a very comfy looking mattress. On the nightstand was a tablet which Wash assumed was for mostly work. He folded all particles of clothing that were made of cloth on the bed and hung his armor in the armor closet. Wash entered the small bathroom and realized it was a shower and bathtub. All the basic toiletries were there." It might be nice to take a bath. I can't remember the last time I took a bath. You know mix things up a bit. Oh my god Tucker is right I need more excitement in my life other then people shooting at me." Wash admitted to himself. Wash drew himself a nice warm bath and slipped in.

As Wash soaked in the nice warm bath, he was enjoying not making sure Caboose had not brought any weapons, coloring books or food into the shower or tried to shower in his armor. He started to reminisce on the MOI on how the other male freelancer and he would compete to see who could take the fastest shower. Oklahoma was always out first and Wyoming was always last. Wyoming said he was not going to sacrifice time on proper hygiene for some stupid competition with no prize. Memories of his time on the MOI flashed in his mind. How he would tease Maine for working out his neck muscles so often. How when Maine woke up from his life saving surgery the first thing he wrote was ' never skip neck day.' Then Wash remembered the time York broke into his locker on his birthday to put in a cupcake and a sticky note that said " Happy Birthday Dork.' Wash remembered Florida inviting everyone to his morning yoga session. The time C.T took him to a cat café while the MOI was refueling to get his mind off the Dear John he had received a few days earlier. That time on a training exercise North had some how had 2 of the quality per packed meals they gave the medics in his pack. . Of course the second one went to South. How North's eye light up with glee as he said, " holy shit there is a brownie in here." South's meal did not have a brownie so she tried to steal her brother's. After North was tired of playing brownie keep away with his sister he spit on it and asked her if she wanted it now. She responded by smashing it in his face.

Wash's pensive trance was broken by a knock on the bathroom door. Wash nearly slipped from his instinct to get into a fighting stance. He also realized he was holding a sponge instead of a knife. Wash wrapped a towel around his waist. Wash knew it was silly but for some reason wielding the sponge but it made him feel better. Wash cautiously opened the bathroom door just a smidge. He saw his armor was gone. There was a pile of neatly folded sweats and a bottle of shampoo with a sticky note. Wash reluctantly put down the sponge and inspected the shampoo bottle cautiously. The sticky note had written on it 'Dr. Grey said you should use this to wash your hair. It will not irritate your wounds. I will not stand for you causing us to be tardy because your wounds are oozing bloody puss. Make sure to turn in that allergy sheet and training regiment by 20:00 hours. You have 1 and half hours since the leaving of this note. – Miss Kang'. " How thoughtful." Wash sarcastically remarked.

Wash rushed through the rest of the bath. He almost mourned the clamminess it once had. He started to dry himself off as he started to look at the training equipment that was going to be available to him. It looked like they would not be in a single location for longer then for 4 days at best. Wash was almost finished with the training regiment when he heard outside in the hall Miss Kang asking "excuse me but with your allergies you going to have to be more specific then hipster food." Sarge responded, " What ever those poor delusional men are who think they are urban lumberjacks but only seem to buy pants in the children's section and believe they can see into the future and know what bands will become cool. What ever they eat. What ever these poor men have must have is because of there diet. For god sake they don't even eat meat. How could they not be sick? Poor things, I'd put those poor men out of their misery if the law allowed it. " Calmly Miss Kang replied as she walked away " I put down quinoa and kale." " And don't the gluten. I want to be sweating the stuff." Sarge bellowed.

Wash heard a knock on the door. "I am coming in 15 seconds. Make yourself decent." Miss Kang ordered. Luckily for him he was already decent but quickly wrote the rest of the last training regiment like a kid trying to finish his test before the teacher came to snatch it from his desk. 15 seconds on the dot she let her self in and let out a sigh of relief holding a coffee cup with a rose motif. " Are all your men this interesting Agent Washington?" Miss Kang inquired as she placed a very small tray of food and put an armor box in the corner of the room. " More or less" Washington answered while passing the completed paper work to her. " Roses huh didn't take that for your style." Wash commented trying to make small talk. " I don't have time for small talk Agent Washington. Light out. Good nigh Agent Washington. I will wake you at 6:00 hrs." She interrupted as she passed the coffee mug to her left hand and felt the temperature of the beverage with her right pinky. " Lights out Agent Washington." She commanded as she walked out. Wash wanted to see if he could get some information about Locus from her so he followed her out into the hall.

He saw her waiting at the door right across from Donut's room. Doyle walked down the hall. " You are all packed sir and here is your nightly chamomile with 2% milk sir. " She informed Doyle as she passed him his tea. " I was wondering where this went." Doyle said as he took the coffee cup. " Yun-Seo, please do try and get some sleep. It is worrisome how little sleep you get. " Doyle pleaded. " If the insomnia allows it Sir. Good night Sir." Miss Kang smiled. " Good night Yun-Seo. See you tomorrow " Doyle yawned as he closed the door to his quarters. Not even a fraction a second passed before she lifted up a loose floor panel and pulled out a coffee mug that had printed on it " KICK THE PATRIARCHY IN THE DICK " and chugged its contents. She put the floor panel back and then re loaded her magnum and stood at attention outside Doyle's door. She turned to face Wash " Do you need something?" Miss Kang asked. Wash decided he was to tired to deal with this and went to bed. He set his helmet alarm to 6:00 hrs and passed out as soon as his touched the pillow.

Wash heard the alarm go off and instantly plotted its demise. Reluctantly he rolled over to shut it up only to see Miss Kang over him with a riding crop that she was smacking on her hand. Her pricing stormy grey eyes were glaring at him. A jaw clamp held up her dripping wet raven black hair. " Hmm you don't need as much motivating to get up as the Sergeant." Miss Kang admitted as she hung the riding crop on her hip. " Why do you have that and why are you soaking wet?" gasped as her got more distance. " I confiscated it from the pink one and from my morning 3K swim?" She replied. " You didn't say there was a pool here?" Wash corrected." "There is a lake" Miss Kang reminded Wash. " You mean the freezing one? Aren't you afraid of getting hypothermia?" Wash tried to verify. "Hypothermia is for the weak willed. You have 10 minutes to get ready and dilly dallying will be taken out of your time to eat breakfast." She informed Wash as she exited. "I hope the others aren't having this hard a time " Wash sighed.

New Republic Underground HQ

"Oh God what did I do? Oh God make her stop crying! " Simmons wined as Private Moore cried uncontrollably " You didn't have to yell at me." " It is ok Moore. Captain Simmons was just trying to help you get better," Jensen cooed as she patted private Moore on the back. " Yeah after training we can play volley ball that always cheers you up." Private Beatty added as she held her bubblegum pink armor against Private Moore's. " Dude isn't it a bit early for you to be crying. Usually you wait until we are all asleep?" Tucker as he and his squad asked as he came over to investigate the crying in the middle the drill. " Did some remind you that drawing on a calculator is not art? That sometimes does it. " Grif asked as his squad came over as well to see what the hold up was. "It's not me assholes. It is Moore." Simmons clarified. " I was trying to shoot the cone and I kept missing and then he yelled at Me." she whined." In my defense Church had better aim then her." Simmons mentioned. " Dude the only advantage Church has over a blind dog with a sniper rifle is that Church had opposable thumbs. I don't think it is physically possible to be worse then Church." Tucker argued. "Maybe her bullets are using map quest. " Caboose suggested as he and his squad came over. "Hey, Bitters' bullets do too." Private Harrell added his rust colored armor was jostled of center from how hard he was laughing at his own joke. "Fuck you." Bitters retorted. Private Moore sobbed louder " I never wanted to be a solider. All I ever wanted to be an Olympian. It's not fair."

Jensen cooed, "If this war didn't start I would have been studying Bio-engineering." "And I would have opened up a spa. We will end this so those dreams can come true for now they are just on hold for now. Come on squad hug." Private Beatty added

Palomo turned to Cunningham " how come we never have squad hugs?"" Because we don't want to catch dork from you Palomo" Roger admitted. Palomo whined, " Captain Tucker Roger is being a bully." "Palomo don't be a snitch." Tucker said. Just then the group heard something smack against a wall in one of the abandoned mine tunnels.

"What was that? Navy go check it out." Caboose commanded. " Caboose your squads have names and it is not there armor color." Simmons asserted. " Actually my name is Navy." Said the soldier in the navy blue armor. " Come on Smith " Navy said as he signaled smith to come investigate " well that is convenient for Caboose. So let me guess your Green " Grif guessed " Kalimuthu" The solider in green corrected. " Dude you think it is the Feds?" Palomo fretted. " I think it is ghost. This is a hotbed of paranormal activity. I have recorded at least 4 different ghost in this area." Kalimuthu commented. "Ghost" Palomo stuttered. " Ghost are not real and paranormal studies are pseudoscience." Simmons corrected. "Say closed mined scientist that can not accept that we don't understand everything. Paranormal studies are all physic and physical chemistry. " Kalimuthu argued. "No " Simmons added " it is pseudoscience because we can't measure any data for it." " Not yet." Kalimuthu debated.

Smith, Navy and Felix came back with a shaking female solider. " Merkwood " the rebels gasped as the ran over to their recently found comrade " we thought you were dead for sure. I saw you get shot when we were rescuing the reds and blues." Jensen exclaimed, " Careful, her body seems fine but I am not so sure she is ok mentally." Felix voiced his concern. " I am not crazy. I saw her. A little girl was running around in the abandoned mines. She was over me when I woke up and I chased her through the tunnels and then I lost her. We have to find her. " Merkwood protested. " Look Merkwood, Navy didn't see a little girl. Smith didn't see a little girl and I sure as hell didn't see a stinking rug rat. Now get some rest and water." Felix ordered. " Or it could be a ghost. Oh I will go get my equipment." Kalimuthu exclaimed as he gleefully ran towards his bunk. "Maybe we can befriend her. It will be like having a mini Tex except with less punching and more games of tag." Caboose said as he followed Kalimuthu "There is no such thing as ghosts." Felix and Simmons screamed in unison.

Later that night in the abandon mines…

Locus was dreading this meeting. He kept repeating to him self " no violence between partners" over and over again in his head and then there she was, walking thought the tunnel to meet him fashionably late as always. There she was the bane of his existence, walking towards him in her bubble gum pink wetwork armor with lilac accents walking as if life was a catwalk. " Is that a gun in your pocket or are you happy to see me?" Madame Guillotine coyly whispered in his ear." It is a gun. I am never happy to see you. " Locus angrily assured her. " Keep telling your self that. What ever comforts you from the fact that I am desperately out of your league." Madam Guillotine countered. Images of him shooting her in the face kept racing through his mind and then he just calmly under his breath saying 'no violence between partners'.

She sat on one of the rocks as if she was posing for a painting. Leaning on her sniper rifle ever so lightly. Locus calmed himself " Madame Guillotine what do you know about Agent Carolina?" Locus asked. " You mean Miss what I lack in fashion sense I make up for in daddy issues. Natural red head my perfect ass. Bitch you are not fooling anyone that clearly came from a cheap bottle." Madame Guillotine ranted as she inspected her nails. " I was not asking your thoughts on her hair." Locus protested. A click in his helmet alerted him that both Felix and Jorogumo had joined the transmission. " I think he was more concerned about her fighting style." Jorogumo clarified. " Oh both bugs are here, " she lazily added. " Hey Felix." Madame Guillotine beamed. " Hey gorgeous." Felix beamed back. " She specializes in close combat and if she thinks it will earn her daddy's love she will stop at nothing. So keep her as far as possible and make sure daddy isn't watching." Madame Guillotine clarified. Locus held up the shattered dog tag. "Whose is this "Locus asked, "How should I know. Even the AI's from project freelancer got a dog tag. Delta, theta, iota, one of the Dakota twins, Oklahoma, Florida, California, Montana, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, hell any AI or sate that ends a it could belong to. But my guess is it is Carolina. You know the obvious choice." Madame Guillotine protested.

" Our best bet is it is a former free lancer. Alabama, Florida, The Dakota twins, Oklahoma, California, Montana, and Iowa can be ruled out seeing as we know they are dead. Our top priority is making sure this free lancer does not meet Carolina. Then we have a bigger problem then we already. I will tell my men to postpone attempting to open the temple of arms and help your men with guarding of resources. "Jorogumo reasoned. Locus quickly started to mentally compose a memo he would send to his men. He would have to ask Jorogumo for some basic Japanese lessons he could give his men. He knew she and her men came form Japan's first colony planet, Takama-ga-hara, which from what he remember from his last visit the locals' English was not the best. Some spoke a little Korean or Chinese if it was not for Syris's limited Chinese they would have never have been able to find their client nonetheless complete the job. " That is boring can't we just find this freelancer and shoot them. Things are so boring on the Republic side the only one who I can have any fun with is Felix." Madame Guillotine wined. " We need to stick to the main mission and the main mission requires that we keep a close eye on both sides." Jorogumo scolded. " But I am bored" Madame Guillotine wined even more. It never stopped amusing Locus that Madame Guillotine was lectured regularly by a women ten years her junior. " Don't worry sugar lips when you get back I can cure your boredom." Felix reassured. Locus could hear Felix's smug grin and wanted to punch it off his stupid face. "Thanks you are the best." Madame Guillotine beamed as she started heading back.

As Locus started to walk back he transmitted to Jorogumo " my fee for killing her after this mission has gone down to $50 bucks." "I need to at least pay you what I spend in aspirin when dealing with her." Jorogumo insisted "Espcially since I have to hear how her and Felix exchange Intel in detail." Locus shuttered at the thought. " You have my sympathy." Locus said. " Thank you." Jorogumo replied.


End file.
